Sandy Maelstrom
by ShadowsOBlack-SkysOBlue
Summary: Choices, one man may effect the future of those around him simply by one choice, now that the choice had a different outcome the history books will change. Pairings not decided and rated M in case i put much more blood/action in.
1. Prolouge

Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto...

You've heard of them, the people that inspire, that lead, those who perform amazing acts even if they aren't amazing themselves? Their known as heroes, and then of course there are the villains, those who more often than not rap themselves in a cloak of evil deeds.

The difference between these two are as the difference between night and day, they are good and evil, and they are as the sworn enemies of one another, or so history says.

Though I think you will find that the villains are harder to find than you thought they would be as the only big difference between heroes and villains are their choices. It's really only that simple, they can pick whichever path they wish, and many times this will also depend on their personality.

The bravest heroes could have turned into the worst of villains with just a small tweak in their personality, think of your own hero, all of his actions, tweak his personality and he who saved hundreds could kill thousands. Choices affect everything, people are constantly affecting those around them with their own choices which in turn makes everyone connected in a way, and all our lives our overlapping each others because of the choices being made. But, our story isn't about experiments testing how different people react under different circumstances; it's about one choice, the choice of the school teacher in fact, and how that choice affected whole nations.

The sky was black and the only light was that of a hellish red from the fires all over, lightning flashed through the sky but no rain came, the ground shook and the surrounding forest was ablaze, the cause? The Kyuubi no Kitsune, it was like a image from the very pit of hell itself, the demon was in the shape of a fox with nine tails, except it was fifty stories tall, when it stomped its paw earth quakes erupted, when it waved one of its tails tsunami's came from nowhere, or so the story's said.

The demon wasn't that powerful just with a swish or a step, but it was powerful, ridiculously powerful even, and all its attention was focused on one thing, Konohagakure, a shinobi village and one of the greatest in the lands, but even this great village couldn't stand against this hell spawn.

The Kyuubi caused a massive amount of mayhem as it slowly advanced towards the village but the shinobi stood against it and fought desperately to cease its advance each with only one resolve; to fight it and hold it off till the Yondaime Hokage could arrive.

And finally, on the outskirts of the village just when the shinobi where at the end of their rope a giant toad known as Gamabunta appeared, and riding it was the Yondaime Hokage, cheers erupted from the throat of every shinobi still alive as they steeled their resolve and turned once more to their enemy, the Hokage went through a complex series of hind signs and at the end a bright light temporarily blinded all around, when they managed to blink away the spots enough to see the toad, the Hokage, and the Kyuubi where nowhere in sight, that day was October 10nth, and it was the day a legend died and one was born.

The Kyuubi was not actually killed, it simply couldn't be killed, so Yondaime sealed it into a newborn baby called Uzumaki Naruto, however since the village was leaderless the Sandaime Hokage took back up the mantle of leadership and his first move was to inform the village about the sealing.

The village didn't take it quite as well as he had hoped, rather they immediately howled for the child's death, The Sandaime turned them down sternly and invoked a rule that those who didn't know weren't allowed to know less told by the Hokage himself, this mostly referred to the younger generation, and he put the penalty of death if someone chose to disregard the rule.

So the years past and Naruto grew up hated and despised by all, when he turned 8 he was allowed to enter the Ninja Academy, his training went poorly till the Sandaime assigned a chuunin by the name of Umino Iruka to the school, Iruka was a decent ninja but more importantly he didn't blame Naruto for being the jailer of the demon as many others.

Iruka began to train Naruto privately and Naruto's kill increased by leaps and bounds, in fact when the genin exams came around Naruto was more than ready. This is where our story truly begins, with yet another choice.

In Konoha, near the walls actually, was a rather rundown apartment building, not many people lived there, but one of those that did lived in room 213, one of the few rooms with a balcony and on the top floor making it only accessible by a stairway that led straight to the door.

The room itself was rather messy, dirt covered the walls whose tan paint was peeling revealing many colors underneath, the floor was mostly scuffed up hardware with a rug in the living room, there was dirty clothing strewn across the floor and over several pieces of furniture. Instant ramen cups were piled three feet high in some places in the kitchen and the sink was filled with dirty dishes, there were a few plants in the house but most of them were dying.

There was no master bedroom but there was a bed in the living room with a nightstand covered in scrolls and newspapers and an alarm clock, on the bed itself was a blond haired kid wearing a very strange sleeping cap and tangled up in the blankets. The blond was Naruto and he was snoring peacefully, that is until the alarm clock made a rather rude noise that many had come to hate. **'BEEP BEEP BEEP'**

Naruto turned over so he was facing the wall and started snoring again, the alarm clock apparently didn't appreciate the ignoring of its purpose so it tried again. **'BEEP BEEP BEEP'** this time Naruto rolled onto his back and covered his head with his pillow, the alarm clock tried once more. **'BEEP BEEP BE-'**

It existence was suddenly ended as a fist crashed down on it, Naruto sat up groggy and rather annoyed, he yawned and was rubbing some crap out of his eye when he saw the time that was frozen on the screen of his now dead clock. "It's eight already?"

He shrugged as he continued to rub his eyes when he froze as he remembered something. _'The exams start at 8:30…'_ Naruto leapt into action and was a blur in his apartment as he got dressed into his orange jumpsuit and blue goggles and grabbed two energy bars from his cupboard, it took him six minutes to accomplish this and he was out the door with a bar in his mouth and still pulling on his jacket.

He sprinted all the way to the academy and when he arrived he bolted into his classroom and practically collapsed onto his seat, when he finally got enough nerve to look up he noticed two things, the first was that everyone was staring at him but he pretty much ignored this as he was used to it, and the second was that he had made it with three minutes to go.

Naruto jumped into the air and cheered. "Yattah!" He then sat back in his chair looking extremely pleased with himself despite the many arched eyebrows in the room; everyone then went back to ignoring him and resumed talking.

Naruto barely managed to wait for Iruka to enter and start calling people into a side room to take the exam.

Naruto was one of the last and he was incredibly eager to finally complete the exam. Iruka looked a little upset as he addressed Naruto. "Naruto, almost all of your scores are high enough to become a genin," Naruto brightened up at that but his face fell as Iruka continued. "All you must do is successfully make two Bunshin."

Naruto frowned but nodded as he brought his hands into the ram sign. He began to concentrate his chakra and form it into shapes as he quickly made another sign before going back to ram while whispering the name of the jutsu. _**"Bunshin no Jutsu." **_There were two puffs of smoke and slowly the smoke dissipated revealing one perfectly normal clone but the other one looked a bit pale.

Naruto scratched the back of his head in embarrassment even though that was the best he had done with the jutsu, Mizuki, who was another teacher, looked to Iruka who also looked confused about what to do, Mizuki leaned over and whispered into Iruka's ear and Iruka nodded. "Good idea Mizuki. Naruto," Naruto perked up when his name was spoken. "Since this is an odd situation I shall take it up with the Hokage about whether you passed or not, he will have the last say in this. Okay?" Naruto grinned and nodded happily, he knew he had a fairly good chance of passing.

Naruto was sitting on a rooftop watching the sun going down as he awaited the final say on whether or not he would become a genin, he had a good feeling about it but still it made his stomach bubble up a bit as his excitement increased.

He didn't notice Mizuki till he sat next to him, he swiveled his head fast enough to pop one of the joints as he asked in a trembling voice. "Did I pass?"

Mizuki turned and grinned at Naruto. "No, but the Hokage has decided to give you a different test, if you complete this one than you become genin and you will be rated as genin of the year." Naruto leapt to his feet and was nearly back flipping around his sensei. "Whatcha' want me to do?" Mizuki's grin only got bigger.

Iruka was lying in bed unable to sleep, he was thinking about how excited Naruto was going to be when he told him tomorrow that the Hokage had decided to pass Naruto as he did make two clones though one was slightly paler than the other. _'Yep, Naruto probably going to be doing flips and dancing and all sorts of crazy things, in fact I bet that he wi-'_

He was disturbed from his thoughts by someone banging on his door. _'Who could that be at this hour?' Iruka_ walked over to the door with a twitching hand but that disappeared when he opened it and saw Mizuki with a worried expression on his face.

"Mizuki?" Iruka asked being rather confused. "Naruto has stolen the Forbidden Jutsu Scroll!" Mizuki practically yelled as he was obviously in a hurry. Iruka nodded and his body went on auto pilot as he got dressed and went outside to begin looking for his student, one of his thoughts out of many was.

_'Why the hell?'_

'_Well, that was easier than I thought it would be.'_

Naruto thought as he started rolling the scroll back up, having learned the jutsu he needed. It was at that moment that a panting Iruka burst into the clearing, they were staring at each other for a few moments before Iruka pointed angrily at Naruto while yelling. "WHAT DID YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING STEALING THAT SCROLL?"

Naruto scratched the back of his as he grinned. "I completed the exam Iruka! Does that mean I get to become a genin now?"

Iruka stopped short and sputtered a bit before he managed to recover from the confusing question. "You already passed the exam, I told you I would talk about it to the Hokage, but why did you steal the scroll?"

Naruto cocked his head to the side as his face went from prideful to being confused. "Eh? I stole it because Mizuki-sensei told me about the Hokage's decision to let me try another exam."

Iruka's face turned from confused to understanding as what Naruto said ran through his mind. _'Mizuki, he's betrayed us?' _

At that moment kunai came out of nowhere and pinned him to a nearby tree, Naruto froze as he stared at his teacher in shock as Iruka struggled to get free. At that moment an evil sounding chuckle came from the tree's catching both Iruka and Naruto's attention, and there in the trees Mizuki was sitting calmly with a large grin on his face, Iruka sent a glare at Mizuki but he had to ask the question no matter how cheesy it sounded. "Why? Why would you betray your friends and family like this?"

Mizuki chuckled slightly at this. "Ha, I only have one reason, power, I'm not getting any stronger here so I figured I could get some idiot to take the scroll and give it to me so I could learn all the jutsu and then sell the scroll allowing me to live like a prince for the rest of my life."

Iruka coughed up some blood before he went back to glaring. "Why Naruto?" Mizuki shrugged. "Well, I guess I figured I could kill the demon child before I left, oh that's right, he doesn't know yet."

Iruka blanched at that but before he could stop Mizuki he started coughing again, Naruto was looking worried about Iruka but also confused so he decided to ask. "Tell me what?"

Mizuki turned to him and looked straight into Naruto's eyes as he said. "The Yondaime never killed the Kyuubi, he could only seal it into a newborn," Naruto's face showed understanding as fear lit up his face, Mizuki chuckled at this. "That's right Naruto, YOU ARE THE KYUUBI!"

Naruto stumbled back but tripped and landed on his but still staring at Mizuki as tears started running down his face, Iruka finally stopped coughing and shouted at Naruto. "DON'T LISTEN TO HIM, NARUTO; YOU JUST HAVE THE KYUUBI IN YOU! YOU AREN'T A DEMON!"

Mizuki scowled darkly at Iruka before he got a very large shuriken off his back and started spinning it while laughing like a man possessed by his own demons he had created, Iruka started pulling out the kunai while preparing his own, after he had taken all of them out he took off at a full sprint while Mizuki flung his shuriken as hard as he could towards the immobile blond.

Naruto saw time go in slow motion as the shuriken came closer and closer, finally he closed his eyes accepting his fate but just moments later he heard the large clang of metal on metal, when he opened his eyes he saw Iruka standing in front of him holding two kunai which he had used in defending him, Iruka looked back and grinned at Naruto. "Don't worry."

He then turned to Mizuki with his resolve turned to steel while his face was set in stone, Mizuki glared at Iruka as he got out another shuriken that was bigger than his torso, Iruka snorted and charged at Mizuki both kunai at the ready while Mizuki jumped high in the air hoping to use gravity to his advantage. They met in a clash of steel and sparks as Iruka blocked the attack and pushed it to the side before trying to stab Mizuki in the chest but Mizuki just went to the side and spun in a full circle to swing at Iruka, this also failed when Iruka ducked and leg swept Mizuki before he back flipped away and landed in a ready position.

Mizuki swept his legs in a circle and used the momentum to fling himself up off the dirt and landed on his feet, they glared at each other before they once again clashed together performing many attacks and defending many.

However this time it was Mizuki to kick Iruka under the chin and send him flying, deciding not to let Iruka get back up he charged the down chuunin and spun his shuriken with a large grin on his face, he was right over Iruka when Iruka leapt up with the other shuriken that Mizuki had thrown and with a very clumsy swing he cut off Mizuki's left arm, Mizuki screamed in rage and pain as he shoved the shuriken into Iruka's chest before he kicked him in the face sending the poor chuunin flying into the underbrush.

Mizuki gripped his bloody stump as he turned to Naruto who was now crying openly as he looked to where Iruka had gone; Mizuki chuckled but this time it held no mirth. "Heh, Iruka's dead, you should be worried about yourself though."

Mizuki drew a kunai to drive his point home. "Cause now I'm gonna kill you."

Naruto only did one thing, he howled in rage as red chakra exploded from him, Mizuki froze in his steps as Naruto rose up and sent a glared laced with killer intent and chakra, he bared his teeth revealing that they were now turning into fangs while his small little scars now got three times as big and looked like they were fresh wounds caused by a wolf, his eyes were blood red to match the chakra around him and he said but one thing.

"_**I'M GONNA KILL YOU!"**_

He leapt at Mizuki who was now frozen in place, Naruto grabbed Mizuki's legs and pulled them apart with inhuman strength, however he was disappointed when instead of ripping the man in half it just pulled one of the legs of, Naruto growled in disappointment before he grabbed the rest of Mizuki's screaming body and began tearing it up like it was tissue paper, but Mizuki managed to ran his kunai into Naruto's head before he died.

Naruto howled in pain before he ripped out the kunai, he looked around as his wound started healing before he sprinted of in a random direction, not caring as his soul was racked with grief.


	2. Fate is twisted

Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto…. Though any characters I made up are mine and mine alone.

Author's notes: In case anyone was wondering why it cut the story off so strangely before was because that was only a prologue, the actual story technically starts now. Btw, in case you were also confused about the lack of lining or any sort of break point to signify a change in who or where you were reading about would be because Microsoft sucks, auto making my lines into its own……

Now, on with the story.

Ignorance isn't blissful at all!

Sand, it was everywhere, on the ground in giant piles and spread out as far as the eye could see; it was even in the sky, turning and twisting with the wind. For some reason, he could name everything around him, sand, air, even wind; but he had no recollection of learning about it or seeing anything besides it in his admittedly short life.

The blond sighed and pulled a makeshift cloak closer about him to block out the harsh weather going on around him, the cloak actually being the legs of his now torn up and many colored pants attached to a beat up jacket with some clever uses of slits he had made and his belt to hold it together.

The blond shook some sand out of his hair as he tightened up his blue goggle like things he had protecting his eyes while trying to ignore the utter and complete lack of moisture in his mouth. Somewhere in the child's mind he recognized this as a bad thing but for the life of him he couldn't remember why.

'_Why can I remember all these things and not remember who I am or why I'm here?' _He paused at this thought and went over it a few times in his head before he scowled darkly. _'And why do I dislike the thought of sounding so old by thinking about life when I'm not entirely sure how old I even am?' _The child shook his head sadly at his situation which had the unfortunate effect of more sand falling of his head and all over his face.

He sputtered slightly and spat some sand out before he brightened up slightly as he used a word for himself that he understood but didn't remember. _'A contradiction of the desert, deserted….. Wow, for some reason I hate myself for thinking like that… something about broody bastards…' _

The blond shook himself clear of those thoughts which ended up making more sand fall down off of his head. But, even as he tried to keep his mind clear a sudden realization came to him.

'_Without water, food, or shelter I will die here within two days.'_ The blond growled as he pushed himself to his feet and shook off any excess sand that tried clinging to him; though it was replaced soon afterwards thanks to the wind that whipped about him.

The kid tried to see through the storm blowing around but failed miserably so he just shrugged and picked a random direction to walk in, maybe luck or fate or whatever would be on his side.

As he walked he started working out his own existence, there were many things to consider; for example, he could feel energy flowing throughout his body which he vaguely recalled from somewhere being 'chakra'. He could also feel that he had two different pools of chakra; one of them was vast like a lake while the other dwarfed the lake in its own mindboggling size and power much like an ocean.

Of course these thoughts could only mean that he had some sort of spirit inside of him. He put that away for future thought before he started contemplating an even more difficult question. Who the hell was he?

However, just as he was about to go tearing through his own mind as he walked he heard a growling and rumbling voice much like what it would sound like if you stood in a empty large room and managed to growl loud enough to make it echo. _**'Gaki, shut up.' **_

The child stopped in his tracks as he realized that whatever had said that was the same thing that owned the second massive source of energy, he pondered this only half a second before he resumed walking with a smile on his face as he turned a word over in his mind. _'Gaki? Hm… I like it, whatever it is it's my name now.' _'Gaki' grinned widely as he continued his trek with the next thought.

'_Do I serve a God?' _Gaki frowned as he pulled his cloak closer about him and thought about it. He must have served a god before in some sort of previous life, after all, now he had some sort of angel in him giving him energy; and there was the fact that he seemed to be alive still even under such harsh conditions.

So Gaki began the surprisingly simple task of basically inventing his very own religion where a three headed sand fox spirit guarded over those who obeyed its command and whim while they lived in the desert and if they didn't obey he eat them, simple really.

While he was doing this inside his seal on his stomach the Kyuubi chuckled as he listened to the kid rant in his mind about how glorious and powerful the 'Kitsune' was. The humor that Gaki was basically worshipping the Kyuubi wasn't lost on him, though he did develop a severe eye twitch when the Gaki decided that a being so merciful yet so brutal must be female.

This logic was eerily undeniable.

I hate patrol duty…

Sand, so much sand, of course she was used to it, being the Kazekage's daughter made sure of it, after all, she did live in Suna, a place where sand was as common as air, one of the greatest shinobi villages in the Elemental Nations.

But, there was one thing that annoyed Temari daughter of the Yondaime Kazekage; patrol duty, it was the true bane of a shinobi's existence.

Temari pulled her white cloak hood closer around her head to try and keep sand from getting in her hair, washing sand out of her hair was simple but she'd still rather avoid it if she could.

She noticed sudden movement to her left but that was just her younger brother Kankuro, he was also wearing the same type of cloak she was; but he was also wearing a strange black suit with a hood that had something like cat ears on it. He had just pulled both of his hoods closer around his head apparently thinking the same thing she was, though he did have shorter hair to worry about.

Temari then looked ahead of her were here youngest brother was walking, Gaara. She shivered a little despite the heat around; he may be her brother, but he had a demon inside of him, the Ichibi no Shukaku.

The Shukaku was one of the Bijuu, the strongest of any demons, and their strength was measured by how many tails each had, Shukaku only had one and so was the weakest of the Bijuu; but his strength was still colossal, like a force of nature.

Gaara turned his head slightly as if feeling her eyes on him, Temari inhaled sharply before she looked away, Gaara shook his head as he continued walking, he had no cloak but he didn't need any as the sand seemed to swerve around him.

They had been walking for three hours and were planning on stopping for a small break the in two hours, but these thoughts were shoved from Temari's mind when Gaara stopped most suddenly and seemed to glare at nothing, she took a few steps towards him and asked in a slight stuttering tone. "G-Gaara, why did you stop?"

Gaara stood there for a minute and Temari was about to ask the question again when he finally answered. "The storm is finally stopping…"

Temari brightened up at that but she still didn't get the answer she had been looking for so she was going to ask it again but Gaara interrupted once more. "A presence is coming…"

Temari nodded and gestured to Kankuro to get battle ready as she pulled a giant fan out from her cloak, they waited as the storm cleared up completely revealing a figure walking towards them.

Oy! The storms gone!

Gaki had been walking for half an hour and was about to sit down again when he saw the storm dissipate, he jumped in the air while waving his hands around and yelling. "HAH! The mighty Kitsune sees it fit to let me live another day! YATTAH!"

Gaki then commenced to do a dance in honor of his god that he made up completely on the spot not noticing the three figures on a dune nearby two of which were sweat dropping while the other had a confused look on his face.

Gaki finished his dance by running a short ways and sliding through the sand on his knees, this ended him up looking directly towards the people on the dune who were still watching him two of which with ever growing sweat drops while the other now looked apathetic.

He frowned slightly as he examined those three before he rose and started walking towards them with no expression on his face.

Temari and Kankuro stared at the strange boy as he approached them, Gaara looked apathetic as usual but he did have a slight eye twitch, Temari was the first to address the strange boy. "Who the _hell_ are you?"

Gaki frowned slightly at her language before he shrugged and spread his feet wide apart with one hand gesturing towards the skies while the other shot towards them with open palm making him end up in a strange pose, what was stranger still was what he said. "I am the traveler of sands, and the survivor of storms! I am he who is unforgettable should any remember him! Server of the great Kitsune of the Desert! The Deserted Gaki!"

Even Gaara sweat dropped slightly at that while Kankuro and Temari face faulted straight into the sands, Gaki, taking this as a sign that they were bowing in awe to him shook his head and hands at them while frowning. "No! You don't bow at my feet, I only serve the Kitsune! You bow at the Kitsune's feet and if she feels you worthy she will spare your life from the evil place of death!"

Temari leapt to her feet faster than he could blink and pointed a very accusing finger at him while yelling. "WE WEREN'T BOWING! WE WHERE SHOCKED AT HOW STUPID YOUR SPEECH WAS!"

Gaki took on a thoughtful look as he circled Temari staring at her as if she were a strange new creature before he shook his head not noticed her eye twitching. "Nope, thought maybe so but no."

Temari was about to ask why he had been staring before he waved her away and turned to Kankuro. "Good sir, do you have any water that I may have?"

Kankuro shook his head clear of any jokes he had been about to make at his sisters expense and was about to answer that he did but Gaki fell to his knees and then on his face taking Kankuro's shaking of his head as a no.

The three sand genin stared at the now immobile boy with utter and complete confusion, except for Gaara of course, he still looked apathetic about the whole thing.

After three minutes of the boy no moving Temari bent over and raised an eyebrow as she poked the boy with her fan. "I think he died…" Kankuro nodded sagely as he said. "The desert takes many in such a way, I hope the great Kitsune watches over his sou-"

He never finished what he said when Temari knocked him out with her fan, but then frowned when she realized that now they had two unconscious boys. Gaara just turned to her and said one thing. "You carry the priest."

Temari sputtered a bit but didn't refuse so Gaara made some sand pick Kankuro up and carried him in a case of sand next to himself. Temari just sighed as she grabbed the boy and slung him over her shoulder as they continued their trek back home. But as she carried him she noticed something seeing as how his head was next to hers she saw a large and nasty scar on his head that was partly covered up by his bright blond hair, she thought only of one thing as she walked back. _'How did he get that scar?'_

They had been carrying the two boys for an hour switching out every once in awhile and where only an hour and a half from Suna, it was sunset so the whole desert looked red and the moon was just barely visible, when the blond boy snapped open his eyes and let out a blood boiling scream, Temari was glad she hadn't been carrying the boy at the time but her heart still skipped several beats.

Gaara's eyes widened slightly before he schooled his face and tightened his sands grip on the blond. But the boy growled and ripped right through the sand and flipped a couple feet away before he lowered himself so he was on all fours and glared at the three sand genin.

Temari now noticed a few things about him that she remembered only because they had changed; his once blue eyes were now deep red and had slits much like an animal; and his once small scars that looked vaguely like whisker marks now were large pure black gashes in his face. His canines were now long enough to make his lip bleed and his fingernails now looked much like claws.

While she was staring at the blond Gaara had developed a large and slightly evil but mostly insane grin on his face as he spoke. "You are like me?"

The blond grinned even wider. **"I am better than you, weakling."**

Gaara shook his head as sand shot up all around him making a large twister around him. "No, you are here to prove my worth and make me feel alive." With that the sand shot forward at the blond you let out a long howl before he started dodging the tendrils of sand and even batting them away like they were flies.

Gaara frowned at this but gathered the sand around him before shooting it at the blond in a wave. Gaki just grinned and dove straight through the sand and ended in a crouch at Gaara's feet.

Gaara's eyes widened as he saw Gaki get that close but even as he attacked sand rose up in defense of the redhead, Gaki noticed this and snorted something that sounded like coward before he rolled and leapt out of the way of more sand.

Gaki danced around Gaara swatting at his defenses and dodging his attacks but Gaara finally caught his feet, Gaki cursed slightly as he clawed at the sand but soon it enveloped him leaving just his face uncovered. Gaara grinned and raised his hand to squash the boy but he noticed something odd about the boys face, his face was smiling widely even as he said in his demonic voice. **"Gotcha."**

Gaara tilted his head to the side but then he heard the sizzle of exploding tags, he cursed slightly when he saw many of them all over his defenses, apparently the boy had taken them from Temari.

Gaara turned back to Gaki and made a fist as he yelled something that was lost in a giant explosion that threw Temari back several feet.

The dust settled slowly revealing Gaki who was covered in small scrapes or burns glaring at Gaara who had blood coming out his mouth and a spider web of cracks across his whole body; both boys were glaring at each other heatedly.

Gaara moved first and shot sand several sand tendrils at the blond but he had no trouble dodging around those before he charged at Gaara.

Gaara watched Gaki approach with no worry at all, he was certain that his sand would protect him as usual but he was wondering why the blond would charge at him like that if he had already experienced his ultimate defense. Gaara received a rude awakening though when the blond ran right up to him and delivered a harsh right hook straight into his face.

Gaara flew back a foot and rolled a bit before coming to a stop roughly three feet away from the blond who was now lying on the ground wheezing loudly and obviously unconscious. Gaara rose to his feet slowly before he limped over to where the blond lay in the sand, thoughts rushed through his head as sand slowly crawled onto the blond's body covering everything but the face.

Temari looked away from the bloodbath that was sure to happen, but as she waited she didn't hear the 'squelch' of flesh being squashed, she waited, and waited but still no sound except for low howling of the wind.

Five minutes later she looked up and saw that Gaara was once more carrying the blond priest, she opened her mouth to ask a question but shut it when Gaara just gave one of the simplest answers to all the questions she had been thinking about.

"He's a priest."

Authors notes

Sorry if the chapter is too short for anyone's liking, I'm trying to get them longer but issues pop up and I am forced to leave it as is to do stuff, soon enough the chapters will get longer though so don't worry. Till next time.


	3. Unexpected Conversation

**Yo! Sorry for the wait, stuff came up, school related stuff, but now I have time so here's the next chapter!**

**Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto, but any OC's may or may not be mine.**

**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxX SAY WHAT? XxXxXxXxXxXxXxX**

"Sir, we know nothing about him, all we know is that he…"

Gaki groaned slightly in his mind as he tried to ignore the voices that faded in and out, they didn't seem relevant to his situation anyways; what was relevant though was the blinding light that blared down on his closed eyes.

"I understand the situation, but my authority is absolute when it comes to the matters of….."

Gaki once again pushed the voices to the back of his mind as he thought very hard about what had happened before the darkness had enveloped him, he remembered talking to the strange trio of people all carrying ridiculously large things on their backs, then he remembered falling when learning that they had no water like substances on them.

"But my lord, how do we know he isn't a spy or something?"

The voices were becoming increasingly hard to put aside but Gaki still ignored them. _Oh yeah, now I remember, it was hazy and red but I remember some, fighting the red head, explosions, pain… What happened?' _

"Temari said he was a priest of some sort, and he stood toe to toe with Gaara and lived! I refuse to let a shinobi like this boy slip through my fingers just because you fear him!"

'_Huh? Priest? Gaara? What are they talking about?' _Gaki thought as he stopped tuning out the conversation just in time to hear two people say. "Hai, Kazekage-sama."

Gaki heard the sound of sandals meeting tile fading and eventually disappear as he continued pretending to be asleep, however the Kazekage wasn't fooled.

"You may stop pretending to be asleep now."

Gaki tensed up immediately and his hand for some reason shot to his stomach as he opened his eyes to stare at the robed man standing by his bed. However opening his eyes so quickly blinded him temporarily because of the sudden and intense bright light.

"Tch, don't be so hasty, open your eyes slowly while averting them from the light, that way your eyes will be able to adjust quicker."

Gaki followed the man's advice and after a minute or so his eyes had fully adjusted to the light and he was able to look around him at his surroundings.

He was in a smallish room with white walls and light blue and white tile floors, there was very little furniture in the room, the bed which he was on and besides that there was a small white desk type thing and a brown wooden closet against one of the walls.

One word came to mind when he was looking around. _'Bland…' _Apparently his displeasure at the blandness of the room showed on his face because the man sighed while shaking his head. "Bah, your spoiled if you care about how many decorations there are, we may not be as rich as some countries but because we aren't extravagant we can do more."

Gaki nodded absent mindedly as he examined the man before him. The man was wearing long flowing robes of white and blue, they looked like they belonged to royalty. He also wore a large hat with the same colors as the robes, but the hat also had the kanji for 'wind' on it. And as I final touch to the man's presence of regality he wore a white mask that hung down from his hat and covered all his face except his eyes.

The man noticed the boy seemed to be tuning him out so he glared just slightly at Gaki, just enough to scare him. It worked and Gaki shivered as he felt the killing intent from the glare and immediately jumped to his feet and stood at attention before the robed man. The man noticed he now had the boy's full attention started questioning the boy.

"What's your name, boy?"

"Gaki!"

The boy had hesitated just slightly before saying his name over loud; this wasn't lost on the man as he called Gaki's bluff.

"You're lying, either you're hiding your name for one reason or another or you don't know."

Gaki's face darkened as he hung his head.

"I….. I don't know my name; I heard Gaki while I was in the desert and so took it as my name."

The man nodded slightly. "Hm, I understand. But from now on you will answer every question I ask with the truth and nothing but, understand?" The man received the boys nod and so he continued his questions.

"Are you a priest?"

Gaki grinned from ear to ear as he pulled one leg up till it rested on his other leg, he then pointed one of his arms toward the wall behind him while the other shot in front of him point up slightly while he practically shouted. "Hai! I am the servant of the great and might Kitsune! Goddess of the Sands!"

The man's eye twitched ever so slightly as he stared at the boys pose; however he shook off the surprise and flicked the balancing boy in the forehead causing him to fall over with a yelp.

"Don't make strange poses and speeches in my presence."

Gaki nodded and muttered under his breath as he got to his feet while cradling the bump he had on his forehead from the flick.

The man nodded as he noticed the boy had seemed to learn his lesson and started speaking again. "I understand you now. Now a few things, you will be given a place to stay, the rent has been covered for three months but after that you will have to pay it yourself, same thing with food and your other bills. You will have a chance to attend the academy and graduate in two weeks to become an official genin of sand. And above all, you _will _drop this fake personality in my presence; whether or not you do it elsewhere is your own problem."

Gaki lowered his head in shame at being caught but then raised his head slightly so his hair still mostly covered his eyes to stare at the man in front of him. "How do you want me to act? I feel nothing, only hollowness where I know I should feel something." Gaki gripped his hospital gown around his chest. "So what do you want me to do, I just want to throw sand around me and shout at how it's unfair. My first memories are of sand, how the hell do I know what I know?"

The Kazekage crossed his arms as he considered this for a moment. "Well, it could be the result of that nasty fresh scar in your head, or you could have blocked out the memories. Either way the past is the past."

Naruto shook his head as tears poured from his eyes. "B-But why, why can't I remember? What if I had family and friends? What if I had a complete life?"

The Kazekage lowered himself down and stared Naruto in the eyes. "Gaki, get this through your head. You probably don't have any family left, and if you did then they probably abandoned you in the desert because you were unwanted. You no longer have a past; only a future, so don't let an unknown past weigh down an uncertain future."

Gaki shook his head violently. "NO! I want to know, I HAVE to know!" Gaki stomped his foot repeatedly during this and the Kazekage glared and pulled himself up to his full height, which was three to four feet taller than Gaki. "You will stop this childish behavior at once!" Gaki froze and slowly sat down on the ground cross legged, the Kazekage nodded and continued. "Now, act the age which you wish to be treated like."

Gaki nodded and collected himself up mentally before he stood again before the imposing figure of the Kazekage who was nodding in approval. "Good, you are dismissed, my daughter Temari will show you around and lead you to your apartment."


End file.
